制度的本质、变迁与选择——赫维茨制度经济思想诠释及其现实意义

Institution: Nature, Change and Choice——On the Institutional Economic Thought of Hurwicz and Its Practical Significance

制度之于经济发展的基础重要作用，不仅得到新制度经济学派和比较制度分析学派的关注，也得到由赫维茨所开创的机制设计理论的重视，其重要性更是被古今中外的实践所印证。基于对赫维茨制度经济思想的诠释，本文的核心论点有三：（1）制度的本质是具有自我实施性的规则或限制，主要用以稳定个体间的信息交换过程，减少其间所产生的不确定性和激励扭曲，从而达到合意的目标；（2）制度变迁是一个融合了自然演化与人为主动设计元素的叠加过程，制度演化有其客观存在性，但有效的制度设计有利于克服和避免人性弱点带来的负面效应，加速其合理化变迁，达到社会既定目标；（3）不同制度之所以有差异，是因为它们具有不同的制度交易成本（信息效率）、激励相容性，从而具有不同的制度落地能力，导致不同结果，如不同的资源配置效果。对于正处深化改革、制度转型以推进国家治理体系与治理能力现代化进程中的中国而言，了解制度的本质及其变迁具有重要现实意义。

This paper focuses on how to understand the nature of institution and its change and choice. The importance of institution in economic development is valued by both the new institutional economic school and comparative institutional analysis school, and in mechanism design theory initiated by Hurwicz. Moreover, it is verified repeatedly in practice. Based on the interpretation of Hurwicz＇s institutional economic thought, the paper has three core arguments： First, institution is a self- enforcing rule or restriction that the society naturally evolves or designs according to the exogenous real environment. It is mainly used to stabilize the information exchange process among individuals to reduce the uncertainty and incentive distortions, so as to achieve the desired goal, such as resource allocation efficiency. Second, institutional change is a fusion and superposition process of spontaneous evolution and active design elements. Institutional evolution has its objectivity, but effective institutional design is conducive to avoiding and overcoming the negative effects of human weakness, and accelerating its rationalization changes to achieve the desired social goal. Third, institutions are different because they have different institutional costs （informational efficiency） and incentive compatibility. Different institutional choice will lead to different results, such as varied resource allocation effects. For China that faces the deepening of reform, institutional transformation and modernization of state governance system and capacity, Hurwicz＇s institutional economic thought has critical practical significance.